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United Airlines glitch disrupts the massive geek migration to San Diego Comic-Con

For geeks, this was the worst possible time for flight disruptions.

 

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

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Posted on Jul 8, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 9:58 am CDT

Every San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) must find its niche, and 2015’s is now officially the year when everyone freaked out over flight delays.

For just over an hour on Wednesday morning—the prime travel time for serious SDCC attendees—United Airlines flights were grounded due to a “network connectivity issue.” More than 4,900 flights were disrupted, causing untold numbers of missed connections worldwide. And since some of those flights included people making their way to Comic-Con, nerd Twitter now has comprehensive coverage of the fallout.

https://twitter.com/LisaGranshaw/status/618769469255647232

Happily, United’s computer problems cleared up after about an hour, although this was already too late for many people to catch their connecting flights.

It’s really just as well that as Comic-Con pros, most of these people have a great deal of practice with waiting in long lines of sweaty, impatient strangers. Next year’s Comic-Con plan? Get flying superpowers. 

Photo via Lasse Fuss/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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*First Published: Jul 8, 2015, 1:51 pm CDT